Dan Moriarty takes five wickets on debut as Yorkshire CCC play out a draw

So much for a sport riddled with elitism and the privately educated.

Not that one would have to be particularly well-heeled, of course, or indeed well-read, to have heard of Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, to whom the great detective referred as the “Napoleon of crime”.

“Mozza”, on the other hand, sounds like the sort of character who might have been a member of Holmes’s “Baker Street Irregulars”, the street urchins who ran errands and tracked down information for him and were able to “go everywhere and hear everything” and were “as sharp as needles, too”.

Moriarty, who has joined Yorkshire on a four-match deal in the County Championship, with scope for that to be extended, may one day become a professor of spin bowling - a tall and free-flowing operator with a nice, smooth action.

He is only 24 - more student than professor - and he made a promising start to his Yorkshire career as this Championship contest ended in a draw.

Bowling from The Howard Stand end, Moriarty twirled his way to 5-139 from 34.2 overs, taking his fifth wicket on the final morning as Gloucestershire were bowled out for 464 in reply to Yorkshire’s 550-9 declared.

After that, proceedings petered out - there was no Reichenbach Falls-type drama here - as Yorkshire reached 200-6 in their second innings before hands were shaken.

“It’s really nice to get the loan opportunity and hopefully make the most of it,” said Moriarty, who has taken 47 wickets in 10 first-class appearances – 46 more than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle managed from the same sample size (his solitary wicket was that of W.G. Grace).

"Unfortunately, at Surrey, it wasn’t quite happening due to the strength of the squad and the depth that they have, so I’m just happy to be here and to hopefully put in a decent performance.

"I feel like the environment really helped me. I was a bit nervous, wanting to do the best that I could, and the players were very reassuring.

"Also, Ottis (Gibson, head coach) was very calming and allowed me to go about my business. Thankfully, it went alright.”

Time, plus a less-than-promising weather forecast, were against Yorkshire in their efforts to secure a second straight win, after they had beaten Derbyshire in their previous match to end a run of 14 months without a Championship victory.

It was a muggy day, with banks of low cloud, and with Gloucestershire 421-8 on the resumption, trailing by 129, only a quick finish to the innings, followed by Yorkshire throwing the bat and setting up a rain chase, seemed likely to engineer a positive result, barring contrivance.

The end came soon enough, Moriarty taking the final wicket after 30 minutes’ play when Ollie Price was bowled trying to sweep.

After resuming on 97, Price’s maiden century had come from the day’s fourth ball, a leg-glance to the boundary off George Hill, celebrated with raucous cheers on the Gloucestershire balcony and cries of “Get in there, ‘Pricey’ boy”.

Matt Taylor, the other overnight batsman, did not add to his total, falling to the first ball of the day’s second over when he edged Dom Leech low to Hill at first slip.

That wicket gave Yorkshire maximum bowling points to go with maximum batting points, something that does not happen too often.

Price and Zaman Akhter added 39 for the 10th wicket, 26 of them to Akhter, who faced 27 balls and hit four fours.

Along with the “Professor” (apologies, “Mozza”), a pat on the back, too, for pace bowler Leech, who took 3-78, a career-best effort on his fourth first-class outing.

Leading by 86, and with 85 overs left in the game, Yorkshire progressed at four runs an over in the 18 overs up to lunch.

Neither opener was dismissed in that time, Adam Lyth easing to 32 and Fin Bean to 38.

Bean fell to the third ball after the break, caught behind pushing forward at Zafar Gohar, with wicketkeeper James Bracey taking the catch at the second attempt.

Lyth went to a 77-ball fifty but fell soon afterwards, edging Akhter to Ollie Price fielding in a wide slip position.

Shan Masood was bowled attempting to reverse-sweep Gohar, leaving Yorkshire 135-3, and bad light and rain forced an early tea and the loss of seven overs.

With just a few stragglers left in the Headingley stands, the teams returned for another hour or so, Dawid Malan falling to a catch behind and Jonny Tattersall and George Hill to catches at first slip, before another shower brought down the final curtain on “Mozza’s” Yorkshire debut.